Culture

Washington, as we all know, is a land of many rivers: the winding Columbia, the raging Skykomish, the gentle Stillaguamish....I could go on and on.
As lovely as these rivers are to look at, they're even better to float on. Just picture it-- the sun shining, birds soaring, and you, cool as a cucumber in your inntertube, floating leisurely past wildflower-dotted banks, laughing with friends while sipping a river-chilled beverage. Ahh, paradise.

Four years ago, he gained notoriety for using Twitter (@Msbeervendor) to sell beer at Safeco Field. Three years later, he was back in the news for raising $25,000 to buy Seahawks jerseys for every kid at Seattle’s Kimball Elementary, where he taught special education. But now, Kevin Zelko is raising money for a much more personal cause: cancer research.

Warmer Waters: KING 5 News states that a “blob” of warm water is expanding inland from the Pacific Ocean, causing water temperatures to be about four degrees higher than usual. Four degrees might not sound like a lot, but that small change can threaten marine life and increase toxins in the water.

Must Look UpBlue Angels Roar into Town (8/1 to 8/2) Love the spectacle or hate the noise, there's no denying the presence of the Blue Angels when they zoom into Seattle airspace. Hold onto your hats—and skittish dogs, too.

Seafair Festivites: Grab your sunglasses and head to Lake Washington for Seafair weekend. The summer-long celebration will culminate with boat races, live music and family fun at Genesee Park in Rainier Valley. As always, the weekend highlight will be the Blue Angels and their dazzling-but-heartstopping aerial performances. Single-day tickets range from $10-$30 and can be purchased at seafair.com. Swing by tomorrow if you're on a budget-- it's free admission on Friday only!

The environmental apocalypse is coming—but at least it’s awash in Technicolor. In the new show at the SAM Asian Art Museum, Chiho Aoshima: Rebirth of the World, the Japanese pop artist shares her vision of the future, where skyscrapers have minds (and bodies) of their own, red-eyed ghost girls drift along washed-out beaches, and puffy clouds have ominous linings.

Nextdoor, the social media network that connects neighbors with each other, didn’t set out to be the go-to site for crime and safety news. In fact, when it launched in 2011—the same year it started in Seattle—its founders envisioned the company as a sort of virtual forum: a place where neighbors could share information about local events, garage sales or lost pets. “People told us, ‘I just need a way to find a great babysitter,’” says Nextdoor spokesperson Kelsey Grady.

In our bi-monthly Seattlemag.com column, Knute Berger--who writes regularly for Seattle Magazine and Crosscut.com and is a frequent pundit on KUOW--takes an in-depth look at some of the highly topical and sometimes polarizing issues in our city.Seattle loves to be at the top of various national lists, and a widely held belief is that we’re the fastest growing major city in America, which is not true.

Yogi Beer: Vancouver, B.C.-based yoga and athleticwear retailer Lululemon has announced it will be releasing its own line of beer. According to CBC, the beer, made by Stanley Park Brewing, is called “Curiosity Lager” and will be released on August 15 in Vancouver, B.C.

Interactivity: Seattle and construction go hand in hand--so much so, apparently, that city officials have launched an interactive map of construction projects around the city. The handy Shaping Seattle map gives viewers full information about each project, including sketches and timelines. It's even mobile-friendly!

Whether we admit them or not, we all have our quirks. Do you worry what your buttoned-up office pals would think if they knew you practice the "Thriller" dance in your living room after work? Do you hide it from your workout friends that you’d rather spend Saturdays having philosophical conversations than doing deadlifts? Would your roommates be weirded out if they discovered how badly you've been dying to race your new Octocopter? Do they even know you have one?

Over the last ten years, with the increasing cost of healthcare and prescription drugs often having more side effects than benefits, more and more people are turning to alternative forms of medicine for their ailments. These alternate forms take a long-term and holistic treatment approach rather than a symptomatic one. The forms that are most commonly known today include Ayurveda, the time-tested Indian system of healing, Naturopathy and Acupuncture/East Asian medicine.

Pacific Northwest poet Richard Hugo, whose name is attached to the Hugo House on Capitol Hill, wrote in his poem "Letter to Kizer from Seattle," "I’m back at the primal source of poems: wind, sea/and rain, the market and the salmon."

As I mindlessly scrolled through my Twitter feed and saw all the above hashtags pop up one too many times, I realized it wasn't just me contemplating moving into the Starbucks next to my apartment just to get a little AC.